Funkadelic
Uncle Jam Wants You

THE REVIEW

"Uncle Jam Wants You" is a universe, a whole cosmos. Apart from the reference to Bernie Worrell’s spacey sound that gives the whole group a certain stellar quality, it's a cosmos because there are myriad details, constellations sometimes very small of melodic and rhythmic ideas perhaps negligible if isolated, but together they make the result 100% Parliafunkadelicment (Thang). These are the details that make you feel that when you wake up from the 15-minute funk dream of "(Not Just) Knee Deep" only moments seem to have passed.

It reminds me of the raucous voice that on the (almost) title track sings childish tunes over one of those masterful funks. It reminds me of the instrumental "Field Maneuvers", pure rhythm, lots of guitar and nothing more, a meeting point between the delirium of "Uncle Jam" and the even greater madness of "Holly Wants To Go To California". A madness comparable to opening "Maggot Brain" with a 10-minute guitar solo. Yes, because "Holly Wants To etc etc" is a ballad. Moreover, it is a piano and voice ballad. Full of irony, with a smirk under the mustache of one who knows they are completely mad to slap it amidst rhythmic bombs with a high dancing content. And yet the mastery of George Clinton and his crew (which here includes, among many, even Michael Hampton, Junie Morrison directly from Ohio Players, the now trusty Bootsy Collins and even a twenty-year-old Dennis Chambers) manages to not let you feel the enormous gap between this white sheep and the other unleashed black sheep with their afro woolly coat.

And if you’re not yet satiated with provocations, you'll be pleased to know that the album concludes with "Foot Soldiers (Star-Spangled Funky)", which picks up the melody of the famous American wartime song "When Johnny Comes Marching Home". The themes of the record are oriented towards a funky militarization, the title already hints at it. It’s no longer enough to be a funk people, who only believe in funk (in funk we trust) and worship Parliament-Funkadelic as deities descended to Earth to awaken people's minds (and little behinds) with bursts of funk. No, now one must fight on the front lines, because dance is destroying what good black music has built so far. Oh no, we cannot allow it. RESCUE DANCE MUSIC "FROM THE BLAHS" commands the cover of "Uncle Jam Wants You" and sings the title track. That’s why the sound is different from the group's early albums, it's more akin to that of the twin group Parliament. Sure, the horns are absent, but the keyboards and synths now compete with the guitar in terms of importance. The dance melodies dictated by the keys blend with Hendrix-like guitar solos that characterize the early Funkadelic sound.

But in the end, these are details. Precisely because it’s a record that has its strength in the little things, in the right little idea at the right moment, the overall result is a compact block of vital energy and your brain is entirely occupied dancing (free your mind and your ass will follow, someone sang) and has no time for details. For heaven's sake, they are perceived, yes, in the subconscious, they are appreciated, but what’s important is the granite monolith of funk that not even the wonderful "Holly Wants To Go To California"'s self-sabotage attempt can scratch.

In the end, the request expressed in "Uncle Jam" (Uncle Jam wants you to funk with him!) is heard. And "Foot Soldiers" recites This is Uncle Jam's army, where we move it, we move it.